Going Camping | New coach brings passion, experience to St. Charles

Friday

It was the dead of winter when St. Charles athletic director David Lawler and his search committee began looking for a football coach when Bob Jacoby resigned after two seasons.

Lawler and his group vowed to pore over resumes and conduct one interview after another until they got the right man for a job that had lost a lot of appeal with seasons of 1-9, 3-7, 3-6 and 2-7.

Almost seven weeks later, it was announced that Deke Hocker, the offensive coordinator at Buckeye Valley, was hired.

Hocker had little or no name recognition in high school football circles, but St. Charles was getting a football coach on the younger side of 40 years old with the experience of someone with graying hair.

>>Video: St. Charles football coach Deke Hocker

• He was a four-year letterman at quarterback and defensive back when Otterbein coach Wally Hood was taking the team from the bottom of the Ohio Athletic Conference to its first winning season in 17 years with a 7-3 record in 1999.

• He was the receivers coach for two years at Western Kentucky, an FCS university, under the innovative Jack Harbaugh.

• He was quarterback coach, passing game coordinator and special teams coordinator for four seasons when Joe Loth was building toward the Cardinals’ first NCAA playoff game ever in 2008.

When the St. Charles job opened in late January, Hocker mailed his resume. He had been at Buckeye Valley for five seasons. The Barons finished 7-3 in 2017.

Why did Hocker (pronounced Hoke-ur) take on such an enormous project? In addition to the Buckeye Valley job, he was assistant principal at St. Paul School in Westerville.

Actually, the job switch wasn’t a leap of faith as much as Hocker was bullish on Catholic education and the prospects of raising a perennial sleeping giant to prosperity. He is a guidance counselor at St. Charles.

“This is an opportunity to teach at a Catholic high school, and St. Charles, for a starter, is one of the greatest schools in the world,” Hocker said. “I know a lot of families here through my time at St. Paul. I know the expectations and I know the brotherhood. I had this job circled that if it opened up, I was going after it.”

Jacoby is a hall of fame coach — he won Division III state championships at DeSales in 1997 and ’98 — and predecessor Jeff Pharion is a St. Charles graduate who desperately wanted to reach the heights with his alma mater.

The seniors said they wanted the new man to play 2000s football with an up-tempo offense and someone they could relate to.

“I love coach Hocker because he brings great energy and he wants to be here,” senior running back and linebacker Taylor Bryant said. “His mental side is so strong. Coach told us that whatever was in the past was in the past and that we had to go forward. Coach is always in a good upbeat. He’s excited about football.”

Jake Moore, a senior safety and running back, was questioned by the search committee about the qualities he wanted in a coach. He, too, wanted a young coach.

There are 23 seniors on the team. This is their third coach, which means adjusting to yet another system. Why didn’t Moore just bag it, watch from the stands or try another sport?

“For one, I have a love of the game,” he said. “We have a brotherhood here and you want to fight for them. It’s definitely difficult changing to a new system, but it will get easier and easier as we go.”

Another senior, two-way lineman Ray Duffy, never thought about giving up football. His brother, Jimmy, was on the 2013 team that reached the Division II playoffs and won seven games.

“That team was full of juniors when my brother, Jimmy, was a senior,” Duffy said. “He told me they were a bunch of guys who would go to hell and back for one another. They had a bond. They were friends.

“With our team, I didn’t want to leave the other guys. I love them. They are some of my best friends and we have gone through so much together. I want to be here sweating with them and going through bag drills. We did lose a lot of close games last year. I hated seeing those seniors go out that way.”

Hocker could still be coaching in college at, say, Western Connecticut State under Loth. He had great connections and might have stepped up to another level after Western Kentucky. Or he still could be at Otterbein under Tim Doup.

“I stepped out of college coaching for family reasons,” Hocker said. “My second daughter was born, and it was time to be the husband and family man I wanted to be. But I didn’t want to step away from the game. I loved college coaching – love it – but I did what I had to do for my family.”

Hocker grew up in Crestline near Mansfield. His quarterback coach was Jerry Harbaugh, brother of Jack and uncle to Jim and John.

“Crestline is the greatest small town in the history of America,” Hocker said. “Coach (Jack) Harbaugh is from Crestline and Jerry Harbaugh, his brother, is the reason I coach. He’s the reason I got back into high school coaching. Jerry Harbaugh is the best coach in the Harbaugh family, and that’s no disrespect to Jack, John or Jim. Jerry Harbaugh is part of me.”

The job at hand looks to be enormous, but Hocker is high on the players and the families they come from.

“The nice thing about being at St. Charles is these guys know how to work,’’ he said. “They do everything you ask of them. This is one day at a time installing a new offense and defense, and these players know their work will be rewarded. These players have high expectations. Yes, this is a challenge and we’re challenging them and they challenge themselves.’’

mznidar@dispatch.com

@markznidar

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